A Market Study of Organic Food Products Available in ... Sharma and Ritu Singhvi.pdfNayana Sharma* and Ritu Singhvi Department of Resource Management and Consumer Science, College

Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(8): 845-856

845

Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.708.095

A Market Study of Organic Food Products Available in Udaipur City, India

Nayana Sharma* and Ritu Singhvi

Department of Resource Management and Consumer Science, College of Home Science,

MPUAT, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India

*Corresponding author

A B S T R A C T

Introduction

Agriculture is one of the most important sector

for shaping economy of our country India.

There was a time in India that after

independence there was food crises condition

leading to food scarcity. As a result during

1960s, green revolution in India helped in

becoming self-sufficient in food. Introduction

of green revolution leads to improved

irrigation, better varieties of crop, use of

various chemical pesticides and fertilizers and

better access to credit helped the agricultural

sector take a break through. But in today’s

scenario due to green revolution the use of

various chemical fertilizers and chemical

pesticides in crops is now used in such an

alarming rate that it is affecting our

environment and health of living organisms.

Excessive uses of chemicals in farming system

have deteriorated soil, water and air quality.

Now the use of these chemicals had reach to

certain level that now production instead of

increasing is either on downfall side or just

reached to saturation.

So, its high time to combat the adversity

caused by conventional method farming. This

can be possible by doing sustainable

agriculture i.e. organic farming. Organic

farming forbidden the use of chemical and

synthetic pesticides to produce food free from

chemicals, of high nutritional quality and in

sufficient quantity. Organic products market

International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 08 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com

The present study was conducted in the market of Udaipur city to know the

present condition of organic food market. Data were collected with the help of

structured and duly pre tested interview schedule. Result reveals that there were

four main shops those were majorly selling organic food products range. The main

aim for this study is to explore present market scenario and the major factors

responsible for future growth of the organic food products business in Udaipur

city. Since, there is a tremendous change in the last few years in our country of

people consuming food habit. Now a day’s people are more aware and health

conscious therefore they prompt to go for safe and healthy food products. So, this

factor will surely help in flourishing the business at large scale.

K e y w o r d s

Organic food

market, Future

growth, Food habit,

Udaipur city

Accepted:

06 July 2018

Available Online: 10 August 2018

Article Info

https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.708.095


846

seems to be niche market for many of the

farmers or manufactures. But this is what our

ancestors were eating and leading healthy life.

Now, there is the need to encourage farmers

regarding practicing the organic farming at

large scale by government. Government

should certify the produce of farmers by

organic certification with minimal fees so that

the farmers can get good amount for their

organic produce. Today’s consumer, is

however well aware about the fact that now

there is the foremost need to switch over their

food habits from non-organic food products to

organic food products. But still majority of

people are not aware about organic food or not

easily access towards it. This is because of

less production of organic food and there are

few outlets selling organic food, which is

another hindrance. Due to less production

there was high market price of organic food, it

is also the main factor which makes organic

food not very popular among the people.

Organic scenario world and Indian

scenario

Willer et al., (2008) reported that organic

agriculture is now being practiced in more

than 130 countries with a total area of 30.4

million hectares i.e., 0.65% of the total

agricultural land of the world. With respect to

the area under organic agriculture, Australia

occupies the prime position followed by

China, Argentina, USA, and Italy.

In a country like India, where labor is

abundant and is relatively cheap, organic

farming is seen as a good cost effective

solution to the increasing costs involved in

chemical farming as reported by

Chandrashekar (2010). The increasing demand

for organic food products in the developed

countries and the extensive support of the

Indian government coupled with its focus on

agri-exports are the drivers for the Indian

organic food industry.

The after effects of green revolution have

encouraged the farmers to take up organic

farming. In India, the cultivated land under

certification is 2.8 million hectare only. The

key issues emerging in organic farming

include yield reduction in conversion to

organic farm, soil fertility enhancement,

integration of livestock, certification

constraints, ecology, marketing and policy

support. It has been argued that organic

farming is productive and sustainable, but

there is a need for strong support to it in the

form of subsidies, agricultural extension

services and research as analyzed by Reddy in

2010.

A study by Asadollahpour et al., in 2013

concluded that organic farming is being

promoted in Iran to address environmental

problems resulting from the use of chemical

materials in agriculture. Despite many

advantages of organic agriculture, the results

of several case studies show that its adoption

rate is still very low among farmers. In Iran,

the cultivated land under certification is 7’256

hectare only. The results revealed that Iranian

farmers have strong motives for the adoption,

yet face challenges in certifying, marketing,

and accessing reliable technical information

and credits.

Pant et al., (2013) reported that India has

increased 25 times area under organic farming

in last 8 years from 2005 to 2012. Organic

farming shows a growing trend, with total 10,

20,000 hectares land used till 2012. Currently

India’s organic trade is above than Rs. 2,500

crores. For enhancing organic farming

practices Ministry of commerce, started the

National Programme on Organic Production.

This national program involves the

accreditation program for certification bodies,

norms for organic production, promotion of

organic farming. The National Programme on

Organic Production standards for production

and accreditation system has been recognized


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by the European Commission and Switzerland

as equivalent to their country standards.

Besides this, the Ministry of Agriculture also

started various promotional schemes for small

farmers. Fifteen Indian States have their own

policy of organic farming since 2004, which is

a good indication for Indian agriculture.

The Green revolution has been the greatest

success story and has brought a spectacular

increase in production and productivity in the

country. But after initial success, the scenario

has changed today with the quest of short term

gains without due consideration of long term

sustainability resources, particularly soil,

water and environment have all now

overstrained, and are getting increasingly

depleted as reported by Kalidas et al., (2014).

Now the concern is to sustain the agricultural

and particularly crop production and

productivity and take this agricultural sector to

the frontier without damaging the resources

and the environment. This will result in an

alternative system of an optimal, balanced,

efficient and scientific management of land,

water, biodiversity and external inputs. Hence,

the system of organic farming comes into the

scenario.

Deshmukh and Babar (2015) revealed that

India’s total area under organic certification

was 4.72 million hectare in 2013-14 and its

global rank is 10th

. The crop growth rate of

cultivation of organic area of India was

11.52% of which wild collection was 12.57%

and remaining area was 7.45% during 2005-

2013. The co-efficient of variation was

approximately 0.5% during same period.

Compound growth rate of export quantity of

organic products of India was 51.50% and

export value was 11.75% during 2002-03 to

2013-14. Among all the States in India, Uttar

Pradesh has highest area under organic

farming followed by Himachal Pradesh,

Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra in 2011-12.

India exports around 135 organic products of

which the share of oil crops in total organic

export quantity was (26.74%) followed by

cotton (24.48%), basmati rice (11.81%) in

2013-14. India is exporting organic products

to all the continents of the world of which the

largest share goes to EU (44.12%) followed by

USA (19.2%).

Mitra and Devi (2015) reported that

worldwide, over 37.5 million ha of land

(0.87% of total agricultural land) is being

managed organically by 1.9 million producers

in 164 countries. In addition, there is another

31 million ha certified for wild harvest

collection. Global sales of organic products

have reached US $75 billion, with the US and

Europe as the largest consumers.

The concept of organic farming is not new to

the Indian farming community. As of March

2014, India had 4.72 million ha land under an

organic certification process, including 0.6

million ha of cultivated agricultural land and

4.12 million ha of wild harvest collection

forest area. During 2012–2013, India exported

165,262 million tons of organic products

across 135 commodities valued at US $312

million. The domestic market for organic

commodities is also growing at an annual

growth rate of 15 to 20 per cent.

Materials and Methods

The study was conducted in Udaipur city of

Rajasthan State. All the four shops were

purposively selected as a sample to explored

and collect the information regarding the

various shops selling organic food products.

During the market survey researcher found

that there were four shops which where

exclusively selling majority of organic food

products. Hence, all the four shops were

purposively selected as a sample to collect

necessary information. The names of shops

were as below:


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Shop 1: Banyan roots organic store

The board and the front view of organic shop

can be seen in Plate 1 and Plate 2.

Shop 2: Eco-fresh organics

The front elevation of the organic food shop

can be seen in Plate 3.

Shop 3: Down to earth

The board and front view of the organic food

shop can be seen in Plate 4 and Plate 5.

Shop 4: Grealth Agritech Pvt. Ltd

An online store for organic food products. The

logo of the store can be seen in Plate 6.

The owners of all the four shops were selected

as a sample for the market survey.

The researcher herself visited each shop

selected as a sample for market survey and

collected data with the help of developed

interview schedule from the shopkeeper. The

collected data was tabulated. The data

collected from market survey was coded and

decoded to formulate the comprehensive

tables. The responses were analyzed using

frequencies and percentages.

Results and Discussion

Basic information

Overall profile of the shop is presented

underneath, which include name, address, type

of the ownership and year of the

establishment.

The data presented in Table 1 reveals that the

establishment of fully fledged organic store

for selling organic food products was started

only eight years back in Udaipur city as the

first organic food products shop was

established in the year 2010 i.e. Grealth

Agritech Private Limited. Later Banyan Roots

in year 2011, Eco-Fresh Organics Shop in year

2013 and Bio Fresh Organics in year 2014

were established respectively. Out of these

four shops three of them were having the

ownership as sole proprietorship and one was

having ownership as partnership company.

Information on organic food products

Results pertaining to the different type of

products, certified food products, knowledge

and importance of organic food certification,

source of obtaining organic food products,

characteristic of organic food and the

perception about the increase in sale of

organic food products in future as mentioned

by selected shopkeepers are presented in this

section.

Scrutiny of Table 2 unveils that there were

only two shopkeepers who sold organic as

well as non-organic food products and

remaining two were selling organic food

products with other organic products like

organic clothing and organic beauty products.

Further, the data presented in Table reveals

that out of four, only two shopkeepers sold

solely certified organic food products as they

directly purchased the certified products from

the wholesalers/ retailers and further sell to the

customers. Whereas, one of the shopkeeper

sold few organic items with certification and

few organic items without organic

certification. The researcher wanted to know

the reasons for selling certified and non-

certified item, the shopkeeper expressed that

he has taken the certification only for pulses

and hence sells the certified pulses whereas

for rest of the products he had not yet applied

for organic certification. One shopkeeper sold

organic food products without certification.


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Plate.1 Banyan roots organic store

Plate.2 Front view of Banyan roots organic store


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Plate.3 Front elevation of Eco-Fresh Organic

Plate.4 Board of down to earth certified organic shoppe


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Plate.5 Front view of down to earth certified organic shoppe

Plate.6 Logo of Grealth Agritech Pvt. Ltd


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Plate.7 Organic food products displayed in two of the selected shops

Table.1 Basic Information of selected enterprises selling organic food products

Sr.

No.

Name and address of the shop Type of

Ownership

Year of

establishment

1. Grealth Agritech Private Limited

C/o Gayatri Seva Sansthan Campus,

Sector-6 Hiran Magri, Udaipur,

Rajasthan

Partnership

company

2010

2. Banyan Roots

33, Panchvati, Near R K Mall,

Opposite Gold Gym, Udaipur,

Rajasthan

Sole

proprietorship

2011

3. Eco-Fresh Organics Shop

1-Shivaji Nagar, Opposite R.S.S

Office, Inside Udaipole, Udaipur,

Rajasthan

Sole

proprietorship

2013

4. Bio Fresh Organics

58-B, Bio Fresh Organics,

Ambamata Scheme, Udaipur,

Rajasthan

Sole

proprietorship

2014


853

Table.2 Type and certified food products sold

Sr.

No.

Products Shopkeeper

1

Shopkeeper

2

Shopkeeper

3

Shopkeeper

4

A. Type

1. Only organic food products - - - -

2. Organic as well as non

organic food products ✔ - - ✔

3. Organic food products with

other organic products like

organic clothing and organic

beauty products

- ✔ ✔ -

B. Certified products

1. Solely certified organic food

products - ✔ ✔ -

2. Few organic items with

certification and few organic

items without organic

certification

- - - ✔

3. Organic food products

without certification ✔ - - -

Table.3 Distribution of shopkeepers according to the knowledge about organic food certification

n=4

Sr.

No.

Particulars Percentage

A. Knowledge about organic food certification

1. Institution providing the certification 100

2. Process of applying organic certification 100

3. Fee structure 100

4. Auditing document 100

5. Regular field inspection 100

6. Compliance verification 100

7. Duration of getting the certification 100

8. Validation period of organic certification 100

B. Importance of organic food certification

1. Serves as a marketing tool 75

2. No need of convincing buyers 75

3. Serves as a sales promotional tool 75

4. Builds positive image 75

5. Develop trust among customers 75

6. No bargaining 75


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Table.4 Sources for procuring organic food products by shopkeepers

n=4

Sr.

No.

Sources Percentage

1. Only from own farm -

2. Both from own and others farm 50

3. From wholesalers/ retailers 50

Table.5 Characteristics of organic food as mentioned by shopkeepers

n=4

Sr.

No.

Organic food Percentage

1. Chemical pesticide free 100

2. Chemical fertilizer free 100

3. Eco-friendly 100

4. Fresh 75

5. Healthier 75

6. More nutritious 75

7. Free from genetically modified organisms 50

Table.6 Frequency distribution of the respondents as per the perception about the increase in sale

of organic food products in future

Sr. No. Perception Shopkeeper 1 Shopkeeper 2 Shopkeeper

3

Shopkeeper 4

✔ - - -

2. Agree - ✔ - ✔

3. Neutral - - ✔ -

4. Disagree - - - -

5. Strongly disagree - - - -

It was expressed by the shopkeeper that he

sold only uncertified organic food products as

the process of getting certification is time

consuming and too expensive which will

further increase the cost of organic food

products and in Udaipur city it is difficult to

find the good number of customers to buy the

organic food stuffs.

Shopkeeper further expressed that he may

take the certification of the organic food

products in the years to come.

Reasons behind this were increased

awareness, growing importance of organic

food and willingness to pay more for these

products among consumers.

All the shopkeepers had knowledge about the

complete information as mentioned in Table 3

about organic food certification. It includes

the information regarding institution

providing the certification, process of

applying for organic certification, fee

structure, auditing document, regular field

inspection, compliance verification, duration


855

of getting the certification and validation

period of organic certification. As far as

importance is concerned they know the

importance of organic food certification as it

helps the shopkeeper to sale the product

without much of convincing and promotional

activities. It also builds the positive image and

develops trust among customers. Whereas one

shopkeeper had the opinion that certification

of organic food products is not of much

importance as once the organic food product

is purchased by the consumers will

automatically realize its quality and

importance and will buy repeatedly.

Certification is not of great importance in case

of organic food products which may

unnecessarily put cost pressure on the

consumer.

Scrutiny of Table 4 indicates that half of the

shopkeepers i.e. 50 per cent procured the

organic food products produced on their own

farm as well as from others farm. The reason

for procuring from both sources was that

certain food produce were grown on their own

farm whereas few products which were grown

on other farms in the city, as well as other

States were also procured.

During collecting the information the

investigator also observed that the organic

food were purchased in the large quantity and

packed them into different quantities using

their own packaging as well as label

information. Remaining 50 per cent

shopkeepers neither had their own farm nor

purchased from others farm as they were

procuring total range of organic food products

in the form of packaged food items from

wholesalers/retailers.

It is evident from Table 5 that cent per cent of

the shopkeepers mentioned that the organic

food products are chemical pesticide free,

chemical fertilizer free and eco-friendly. Out

of four shopkeepers three shopkeepers said

that organic food remains fresh for longer

duration and considered to be healthier and

more nutritious than non-organic food.

Whereas fifty percent of the shopkeepers

considered that organic food is free from

genetically modified organisms. This allow

the investigator to extrapolate that majority of

the shopkeepers were aware about that

organic food products are better as compared

to non-organic food products in many

characteristics.

Table 6 describes the perception about the

increase in sale of organic food products in

future. The shopkeepers’ perception was

dependent upon the current sale of organic

food products. Only one shopkeeper strongly

agreed with the fact that looking at the present

scenario of customers purchasing behavior the

sale of organic food products will surely be

increased in future. Whereas on other hand

two owners have just agreed with the fact that

in near future demand of organic food will

increase but there is the need of increased

awareness among the consumers regarding

organic food products. One out of four

owners was neutral in expressing his

perception about increase in sale of organic

food products in the future. He said he was

not sure about increase or decrease in future

sale. None of them disagreed and strongly

disagreed that the future sale of organic food

products will not increase.

In all there were only four shops selling

majority of organic food products in the

market of Udaipur city started only eight

years back in Udaipur city. There were only

two shopkeepers who sold organic as well as

non-organic food products and remaining two

were selling organic food products with other

organic products. Only two shopkeepers sold

solely certified organic food products as they

directly purchased it from the wholesalers/

retailers. Whereas, one of the shopkeeper sold

few organic items with certification and few


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organic items without organic certification.

One shopkeeper sold all the organic food

products without certification. All the four

shopkeepers had knowledge about organic

food certification.

As far as importance is concerned they knew

the importance of organic food certification as

it helps the shopkeepers to sell the products

without much of convincing and promotional

activities. Whereas one shopkeeper had the

opinion that certification of organic food

products is not of much importance.

Two shopkeepers procured the organic food

products produce on their own farm as well as

from others farm. Remaining two

shopkeepers neither had their own farm nor

purchased from others farm as they were

procuring total range of organic food products

in the form of packaged food items from

wholesalers/retailers. Cent per cent of the

shopkeepers mentioned that the organic food

products are chemical pesticide free, chemical

fertilizer free and eco-friendly.

The above study shows that still there is the

need of more number of certified organic

shops in market. The market of organic food

is just handful and need to be promoted by the

government among farmer (producer) and

consumer so that a profitable business can be

run successfully.

References

Asadollahpour, A., Pirmoradi, A. and

Mohammadi, S.S. 2013. Organic

farming: status, challenges and barriers

- an Iranian perspective. J. Agri-Food

Appl. Sci. 1: 110-118.

Chandrashekar, H.M. 2010. Changing

scenario of organic farming in India: an

overview. Int. NGO J., 5: 34-39.

Deshmukh, M.S. and Babar, N. 2015. Present

status and prospects of organic farming

in India. Eur. Acad. Res. 3: 4271-4287.

Kalidas, K., Darthiya, M., Malathi, P. and

Thomas, L. 2014. Organic coconut

cultivation in India – problems &

prospects. Int. J. Sci. Res. 3: 14-15.

Mitra, S. and Devi, H. 2015. Organic

horticulture in India. Horticulturae. 2:

1-6.

Pant, A.K., Kumar, K. and Mishra G.C. 2013.

Statistical review: worldwide use of

organic farming practices. Popular

Kheti. 1: 1-4.

Reddy, B.S. 2010. Organic farming: status,

issues and prospects – a review. Agri.

Econ. Res. Rev. 23: 343-358.

Willer, H., Yussefi, M. and Sorensen, N.

2008. The world of organic agriculture-

statistics and emerging trends 2008.

http://orgprints.org/13123/4/world-of-

organic-agriculture-2008.pdf.

How to cite this article:

Nayana Sharma and Ritu Singhvi. 2018. A Market Study of Organic Food Products Available

in Udaipur City. Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci. 7(08): 845-856.

doi: https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.708.095

http://orgprints.org/13123/4/world-of-organic-agriculture-2008.pdf

http://orgprints.org/13123/4/world-of-organic-agriculture-2008.pdf

https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.708.095

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A Market Study of Organic Food Products Available in ... Sharma and Ritu Singhvi.pdfNayana Sharma* and Ritu Singhvi Department of Resource Management and Consumer Science, College